


Safety is Our Priority

by coruscantguard (nadiavandyne), nadiavandyne



Series: 2020 Fic Challenges [8]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: BUT ONLY A TINY BIT THIS IS NOT A SAD STORY I SWEAR, Bickering, Canon-Typical Violence, Enemies Working Together, Enemies to Friends, Force Ghost(s), Gen, Humor, Jedi Culture, Jedi Mind Tricks (Star Wars), Mentions of Canonical Character Death, Space TSA, The Force, Undercover Missions, Unreliable Narrator, a teeny tiny bit of angst, asajj ventress: business student, is a thing that exists now apparently
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:53:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26296732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nadiavandyne/pseuds/coruscantguard, https://archiveofourown.org/users/nadiavandyne/pseuds/nadiavandyne
Summary: As irritating and infuriating as it is, Kenobi is her best chance at getting off this hellhole without calling her Master’s attention to her… delay.It’s not a failure, it’s a delay. Maybe if she says that to herself enough, it will become true.(Or, 3k words of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Asajj Ventress going through space TSA.)
Relationships: Ky Narec & Asajj Ventress, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Asajj Ventress
Series: 2020 Fic Challenges [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1810486
Comments: 15
Kudos: 73
Collections: 2020 Obi-Wan Kenobi Gen Exchange





	Safety is Our Priority

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sigye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sigye/gifts).



The line to security isn’t the worst line Asajj has ever been in, she can admit that. Kenobi has found a suitably small spaceport for them to leave from, one that should be discreet enough for them to get a good distance away from this hellhole of a planet before anyone realizes that they’ve left, and all their other clientele seem to be good at minding their own karking business, at least so far.

But that also means that she’s astronomically bored, and she can’t even kark with people for fun. Well, she could, but Kenobi would presumably take offense to that, and then she’d have to call the Count and admit her failure, and Asajj is not about to do _that_ , not while she knows the holocron is still out there. As irritating and infuriating as it is, Kenobi is her best chance at getting off this hellhole without calling her Master’s attention to her… delay.

It’s not a failure, it’s a delay. Maybe if she says that to herself enough, it will become true.

Kenobi doesn't seem to be paying attention, his nose buried in a holopad he's reading. It is, quite honestly, remarkably rude. Or at least remarkably annoying to her, and she's perfectly fine with equating that to rudeness. It's not like anyone is going to _correct_ her about it.

There's a snort to her right at that thought, and Asajj deliberately ignores it. She knows that if she turns her head, she'll see the ghost of her dead Master standing there, his amusement at her statement obvious by the way his arms are crossed and one eyebrow is raised. _That's like the pot calling the kettle black, my young Padawan_ , Ky would have said. And this version of him, this infuriatingly persistent figment of her imagination, will say something similar if she gives him an opening to, so she just turns more firmly to Kenobi and tries to will him away.

"Asajj, you do realize that that's like the pot calling the kettle black, don't you?" Ky says anyway. She grits her teeth, and doesn’t reply.

“Ignoring me doesn't make it not true."

And maybe it's because she's had a long kriffing day, maybe it's because she still doesn't have the Force forsaken holocron, but Asajj is unable to completely stifle her sound of rage at that, whirling on her heel. Just as predicted, her Master's flickering form is there, and the fact that her imagination can still conjure him so accurately to this day just fuels her rage. She wants to scream at him, break him, wants to carve every memory she has of Rattatak out of her brain, wants the life she was promised and had ripped away when he up and _died_ —

"Is something the matter, my dear?" Kenobi asks, breaking through her thoughts, and Asajj freezes. She can sense the jagged edges of his wariness brushing up against her mind in the Force, knows his hand is on his concealed lightsaber, anticipating the worst, and she forces herself to lock up any feelings she has on the matter, and throw them in her pile of things to deal with never. 

Ky Narec is useless, dead and forgotten. The rage his memory brings is a useful tool when she's channeling the Dark Side, so she keeps it with her, but when she's not using the Force, it just does more harm than good.

"I thought I might have seen someone troublesome. You might've seen them as well if you were paying any attention to something besides the holopad," she says pointedly, and Kenobi gives her a look, but relents, sliding the holopad away into his bag. As he does, Asajj catches a hint of a stray thought brush past her mind, something about _invitation_ and _ball_ and _Naboo_. 

"Kenobi," she starts, "do you actually have a plan—" Asajj breaks off when she realizes that he doesn't appear to be listening. Huh. "Hey, Kenobi. Master Jedi. I'm talking to you."

Kenobi blinks, says, "my apologies. I'm afraid I was lost in thought."

Yeah, no shit, she doesn't respond, because she does have _some_ manners. "Something about Naboo?"

"Ah- no," Kenobi lies, just right on the side of too quick. He quickly changes the topic. “Ventress, I have to ask—"

"Do you really?"

"—are you planning on sharing why you decided to actually grace me with your presence this trip?”

“No.”

“There’s little doubt in my mind that Dooku could end this manhunt with a snap of his fingers, or a few strategically placed bribes,” Kenobi continues, apparently deciding to pretend not to hear her. “And while I don’t object to your company, I wasn’t expecting it.”

“My dear Obi-Wan, the Count doesn't want me rely on him for everything, you know. Unlike your Skywalker, he understands that people need space to grow."

Kenobi snorts. "Very well. I do suppose it's a good thing I am here after all, then"

Asajj pauses, because that jump in logic makes zero sense. "And why would you think that?"

"I don't imagine Dooku would be happy if it was Anakin you ended up teaming up with."

"If it was Skywalker I had to team up with, there would be a murder, not a team up."

"I feel like I ought to be offended on Anakin's behalf."

"Darling, I never said _I'd_ be the one doing the murder."

"Are you really expecting me to believe that you wouldn't be?"

"No, I would, but he'd attempt it before I even opened my mouth. He’d fail, but he _would_ try."

"... I suppose you do have a point."

The reluctant resignation in his voice counts as a win in her book, and Asajj takes a moment to savor it before moving on. "Now, do you have any genius plans for getting us out of here without alerting security to our real identities?"

"Oh, you think my plans are genius? I'm flattered."

She huffs in disgust. "Do the Jedi not teach their younglings sarcasm?

"Oh, no, they absolutely don't," Kenobi says sarcastically. "Sarcasm is actually forbidden for Jedi. It's in our code, right after 'don't murder younglings' and 'don't become a politician.'"

Out of the corner of her eye, Asajj sees Ky raise his eyebrows at that statement, and while he doesn't laugh out loud, his mouth presses into the thin line that means he's _absolutely_ laughing internally.

Asajj wrenches her gaze away from her former Master, and hits Kenobi's arm instead, making sure not to pull her punch.

"Hey!" Kenobi exclaims, reaching a hand up to rub at it. Good. "That was uncalled for."

"Don't be a baby," she says, dismissive. Kenobi rolls his eyes, like he's Skywalker, or the brat that he has following him around these days. Ugh. "Do I get to know your plan now?"

"After that? No. You are capable of improvising, are you not?"

" _Am I **capable** of **improvising** — _Kenobi, _no_ , that's the most idiotic plan I've ever heard, Force above, _why_ do they call you the Negotiator _— "_

"Excellent," Kenobi interrupts, cutting her off, and she sneers at him. He ignores it. "Just follow my lead, then," he says, and he smiles, walks up to greet the security agent.

Rolling her eyes and following him sulkily is not the most dignified of reactions, but he did it first, so, whatever. Anyway, she's not a prissy little kriffer like he and his Order are, so she doesn't need to be all repressed and dignified.

(The voice in her head reminding her that there is a world of difference between one being repressed, and simply not letting one's emotions dictate their actions, is a voice that can shut the hell up. She got Ky's lecture about how the Jedi encourage the latter, not the former, enough times when he was _alive_ , thank you very much.

Dooku says otherwise, anyway, and he's her Master now, not some useless, washed up, guilt driven, hypocritical Jedi. What Ky said doesn't _matter_. He was a kriffing liar, anyway. They all are.)

Asajj doesn't bother paying attention to the conversation Kenobi is having with the security agent _—_ a small Rodian who gestures _way_ too much _—_ so she only tunes back in when Kenobi hands her a fake ID.

“Serenno University, huh? What are you studying?" the Rodian asks, and Asajj doesn't bother to muffle her groan. Force hells Kenobi, really?

Kenobi pays her no mind as he answers. “Galactic relations," he says, handing over his fake ID.

"That's got to be an interesting subject to study right now."

"It is."

Kenobi gets his ID back, and steps out of the way. Asajj takes his place, and hands her own over. "And what about you, hm?"

Kriff kriff kriff kriff kriff kriff _—_

"Business,” Kenobi says smoothly. Asajj blinks, then turns to stare at him incredulously, damn their covers. "She's getting a Masters of Business Administration."

Oh that _karking son of a—_

"Well, there's nothing wrong with that!" the Rodian chirps, and Asajj responds to _that_ with a glare. The Rodian visibly wilts. "I'll just… go get that for you then, sirs."

The Rodian scampers off, and Kenobi sighs. "Really, Asajj?"

"A Masters of Business Administration?" she demands in reply. "Our cover is that we're at Uni, and I'm a kriffing _business student_?"

"Well, you _do_ seem to be in the business of failing to kill Jedi, and I'd imagine that you'd like to change that, so a bit of higher education in business might do you well."

"Oh, _y_ _ou're_ one to talk. Remind me, just how often has my Master slipped out of your grasp?""

"Ventress, I've killed 50% of the Sith that I've interacted with, I'd say that's a pretty good record"

"You haven't killed me."

" _You're_ not a Sith."

That karker.

"Whatever. There aren't many true Sith for you to interact with, so that's really not an impressive record."

"I, for one, would disagree."

"And you would be wrong. Suck it up, Kenobi, this isn't the creche, I'm not going to coddle you."

A pause, and during it, the Rodian returns. Asajj chooses to let Kenobi handle dealing with the fool, and moves towards the luggage scanners. Kenobi doesn't follow, as he doesn't have any bags, _Jedi_ , and instead goes straight towards x-ray machines. Once she's sent her bags through, she joins him.

He speaks up before she can. "And why would you say that?"

_That_ — does he mean coddling? Or— ah, right. He probably means the creche. Asajj rolls her eyes, crosses her arms, sends him an incredulous look. "I may not be a Jedi, Kenobi, but I'm not _completely_ ignorant about your way of life. You were raised in the creche, just like all the other Jedi brats, right?"

"... One could say that." Kenobi pauses to step into the x-ray machine, and only resumes speaking once he's exited it, the light having blinked green. "I didn't think that Dooku was the type to reminisce about his time in the Jedi Order."

Asajj steps into the x-ray machine, and she nearly laughs, because, well, Kenobi isn't _wrong._ The mental image of him doing so is surprisingly funny. "He's not," she confirms, stepping out.

"Than how do you know that?" Kenobi asks, voice low, and she pauses. She can hear the suspicion clear in his voice, which, for once, is absolutely not warranted— "because I can confirm that it isn't public knowledge."

Oh, kriff. _Kriff_.

"Mind your business, Jedi," she snaps back. Her temper is already flaring, and she determinedly pushes back the memories the presence of a karking _Jedi_ have pulled to the forefront of her mind. It doesn't _matter_ how she knows that, doesn't _matter_ that Ky had told her—

"I disagree. Ventress, we may be working together for now, but you _are_ an enemy operative, and you have shown that you have no qualms about murdering innocents, and actively enjoy both killing Jedi and clones. This is _absolutely_ my— wait," Kenobi pauses mid-self righteous rant, cocks his head to the side, and suddenly his eyes go wide. Asajj narrows her eyes, tries not to see Ky out of the corner of her eyes, then— " _Really_?"

In the Force, she feels something brush up against the edges of her mind— a presence that's not invasive, not probing, just... picking up on the thoughts she's projecting.

On the—

She brings up her shields in an instant, bile bitter in her throat, and snarls, "shut the _kriff_ up, Kenobi." Dimly, Asajj notes that she hears a dull roaring in her ears, and roaring that wasn't there before.

Kriff. _Kriff_.

"Jedi Master Ky Narec?" Kenobi says. Kenobi _continues_ , because Kenobi is a _fool._ She will take his head for this, for being the one to witness— "So _that's_ what happened to him."

Asajj blinks. In her ears, she still hears a roar. She blinks again.

Then the world around her turns red.

She's slamming him against the wall before she knows it, using the Force to propel herself as she lets out a wordless scream of rage. How dare he— how _dare_ he—

" _Asajj_!"

She ignores Ky. It's been getting easier to do so as she pledges her time to Dooku. Asajj is vaguely aware of the fact that there are other beings around— civilians, _sheep_ — and oh, she takes back what she said about the clientele of this place minding their own kriffing business. There's a mix of fear, horror, and shock rolling off them all in the Force, and it just serves to make her stronger, keeps her blood boiling as she grabs her lightsabers, ignites them,, and—

"You don't see anything out of the usual," Kenobi states, and the sheer power he laces his words with stops Asajj dead in her tracks. He can't seriously think he can control her with a mind trick, can he?

That _fool_. The indignation rises in her like bile, but then…

The room isn't the molotov cocktail of emotion it was before. 

" _Look_ ," Ky instructs her, and she's snarling _kark off_ at him reflexively, but Kenobi is doing something in the Force, so she submerges herself in it anyway. She's a beacon of darkness and rage in the Force, she's worked to make that so, but beyond the trail of darkness she's left behind, Kenobi's influence is obvious. 

He… wasn't trying to mind trick her, it seems. His words have twisted around the other sentients in the room, a distinctly firm, calming presence bumping up against all the other Force signatures in the room. It's a controlled, gentle persuasion, for them to disregard what's happening between the two Force users in the room, and Asajj has the absurd realization that if this works, she could just murder Kenobi here and be done with it. 

And… it does work. Slowly, they start backing down, one by one, and their voices overlap as the beings around repeat the order Kenobi gave, one on top of the other, and…

And she swings her lightsaber to Kenobi's neck.

" _Never_ say his name again," she orders, "Understood?"

Kenobi tilts his head, and—

" _I_ _s. That. Understood._ "

A moment of silence. Then: "Of course, my dear," Kenobi says, "I apologize for overstepping."

"I don't want your karking apologies, Kenobi," she snarls, leaning in. Kenobi looks back at her, completely unruffled. "And I sure as hell don't want your pity either."

"I wouldn't dream of it, Asajj."

She reminds herself of the holocron, of the spaceship she needs to catch, and makes herself move back. She leaves her lightsaber at his throat for one more long minute though, before scoffing and flicking it off. "I didn't always serve the Count, you know," she sneers, her tone dismissive, apathetic, bored. "Ky Narec trained me for a while, years ago. Then he died, and his flesh became bird food." 

"You cremated me," Ky corrects, tone mild. 

Asajj ignores him and crosses her arms, rolls her eyes at Kenobi. Her brain can take its technicalities and go kark itself. "There's your answer. Happy?" 

Kenobi stares at her for a moment, before nodding. But he doesn't move away from the wall, still studying her, and Asajj rolls her eyes again. 

"Are we going to move or not?"

That seems to shake Kenobi out of it. "I suppose we should, yes," he says, and she turns on her heel, stalking towards the luggage scanner to pick up her bags, then heading in the direction of the gate. She doesn't bother to turn around to check if hes following her, instead focusing on glaring at other passerbys and seeing how quickly they jump out of her way. They walk in silence until—

"My Master was murdered during the invasion of Naboo," Kenobi says suddenly, and she turns to look at him in surprise, causing the twi'lek who'd been behind her to trip over his own feet as they try to get out of her way. "Earlier. When you asked about Naboo." Kenobi's voice is uncharacteristically void of emotion. "The anniversary of it is this week."

Asajj blinks. Was he really—

Oh Force kriffing hells, seriously? Jedi. _Jedi_ . The stupidity of them all kind of makes her want to scream. She literally _just_ told him that she didn't want his pity, and and now he's pulling this? What kind of soft, pathetic _idiot_ would just tell an enemy operative that kind of information?

She won't stop him from sharing. If he wants to build his own pyre, he can lie in it. It's not her problem.

(She's not touched. She really isn't. Kenobi is being an idiot, there's nothing _touching_ about that.)

"His master was Qui-Gon Jinn," Ky says, "we were in the same clan as children. He took Obi-Wan as a padawan shortly before I left."

And, well, that's a useful piece of knowledge she didn't know she had. "Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn," she purrs in response, mocking his earlier statement, because she's not above twisting the metaphorical knife. He did it first, anyway. Kenobi's surprise is nothing but a brief flicker in the Force, and he gets it under control quickly, but it's absolutely there. _Ha_ . _Got you there, Jedi_. 

Still, Kenobi doesn't miss a beat in responding. "Dooku's been telling _those_ tales instead then?" 

No… but he doesn’t need to know that. "My Master likes to speak," she says dryly, picking up her bag again, and swinging it onto her back. Kenobi snorts, and follows suit.

"That he does," Kenobi agrees. "His monologue on Geonosis was _ridiculous_ , truly."

"You're one to talk."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

**Author's Note:**

> sigye, I hope you enjoyed!!! Your prompt about Obi-Wan teaming up with an unlikely ally just _spoke_ to me, so hopefully I did it justice!!!
> 
> \- The title is _absolutely_ a joke about the TSA's whole "Your safety is our priority" thing. Listen, this is from Ventress' POV, and safety is really not something she gives a shit about. And while Obi-Wan does care more about safety, he's also kind of committing identity fraud here, as well as assisting a known war criminal, so... I think it's safe to say that safety has been pushed pretty far down on the priority list.
> 
> \- Ky Narec's presence in this is based off of his presence as a Force ghost/figment of imagination in the audiobook _Dooku: Jedi Lost!_ In the book it's left pretty ambiguous about if Ky is an actual Force ghost or just a figment of Ventress' imagination, so here, I'm going with Ky actually being a Force ghost. However, Ventress doesn't know that, and thinks he's just a particularly annoying figment of her imagination. 
> 
> \- I do actually have more thoughts about Ky's presence here, mainly re. the finicky details of involving his Force ghost in the Clone Wars, but those thoughts spoil _Dooku: Jedi Lost,_ so I'll probably just post them on Tumblr and throw a link to them here for anyone who's interested! Because I thought a LOT about this. I probably thought way too much about it actually, oops. 
> 
> \- The reason Obi-Wan is able to do what he does with the mind trick here is because _literally no one there wanted something to be happening._ This is a space airport, it's a small space airport used oftentimes by smugglers and bounty hunters-- they really, really, really do not want there to be an incident that could draw the attention of the planet's government. Obi-Wan's mind trick works because it appeals pretty much to everyone in the space airport. Also, it's a small space airport, and not too busy, which helped a lot.
> 
> \- Ngl, I have no idea why Asajj Ventress, business student, is such an amusing concept to me, _but oh my god, I find it hilarious and maybe sort of restructured half the story just so I could get that line in there, oops._
> 
> \- In a galaxy far far away, I feel like university would be less of a thing that's seen as "standard" to do in ones' early twenties, and more something done after people got a fair amount of "real life" experience. Since there are so many examples of like, 14 year olds ruling countries and traveling the galaxy, I personally headcanon that settling down somewhere and devoting years of your life to a study would be something that often occurred after people had spent a good chunk of time getting work experience. 
> 
> \- Come talk to me on Tumblr [@coruscantguard!](https://coruscantguard.tumblr.com/)


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